B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Suvidha Centre at Moga courts controversy, again
Consumer alleges being charged twice for same service
Moga, July 17
The local Suvidha Centre being run by the district administration has always courted controversies. Now, there have been reports that the centre is levying service charges and government fee on the consumers over and over. For the same work, the consumers are being ‘forced’ to apply afresh and pay again if the service is not provided to them earlier for any reason.

PUDA to ‘outsource’ land acquisition
Chandigarh, July 17
Punjab’s Housing and Urban Development Department is “outsourcing” land acquisition for future projects in Chandigarh’s periphery. For a job that could have been done by land acquisition collectors of the Housing Department, the government will be paying Rs 30,000 per acre as fee to private consultants to acquire land on behalf of the agency.

Bikers’ gang back with a bang
Abohar, July 17
Motorcycle-borne miscreants again struck on Tuesday and looted Rs 2.38 lakh by smashing the window panes of a car parked by a village sarpanch outside Punjab National Bank on the Gaushala Road here. 

Suvidha Centre at Moga courts controversy, again
Consumer alleges being charged twice for same service
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Moga, July 17
The local Suvidha Centre being run by the district administration has always courted controversies. Now, there have been reports that the centre is levying service charges and government fee on the consumers over and over. For the same work, the consumers are being ‘forced’ to apply afresh and pay again if the service is not provided to them earlier for any reason.

The earlier controversies over a former contractor of the centre, presently in judicial custody, facing charges of fraudulent sale of forms for seeking grants in the name of ‘Nanhi Chaan’ scheme and the recent recovery of thousands of unauthorised application forms of various services, are yet to be resolved.

However, the new controversy has demanded an overhaul of the centre’s administrative set-up.

Amritpal Kaur, daughter of a local resident Jagdev Singh, applied for a birth certificate through the Suvidha Centre by paying the requisite fee and service charges on June 14 this year but the authorities concerned in the Municipal Corporation refused to issue it on June 18 claiming that there was no record available regarding her birth.

On June 28, she again applied for the birth certificate. The Suvidha Centre employees once again took service charges and the requisite fee from her for the same service.

Interestingly, this time, the MC authorities issued her a birth certificate, which they had denied on the previous occasion.

Few weeks ago, Navdeep Singh Gill, son of Baldev Singh Gill and a resident of Duneke village, purchased an application form from the Suvidha Centre here for making his driving licence. But when he returned to deposit it, the centre employees refused to accept it and forced him to purchase another file/form by shelling out Rs 20.

When he argued that he would have to complete all the formalities again, which may consume more time, he was allowed to take out the old form and fix it in the new file, after which they accepted it but did not return the money.

The centre’s employees also found a novel way to protect the official machinery that fails to provide public services in time.

If the consumer does not get a particular service in time, the employees manning the counters take the old delivery slips from the consumers and issue them fresh slips by putting new dates for the delivery of the same work. The old slip is disposed of.

The District Magistrate (DM) has also verbally imposed a ban on the sale of arms licence forms.

The in-charge of the Suvidha Centre, Mohit Arora, said one had to take prior written approval of the DM to obtain an arms licence form.

He said, “We do not accept form for any service that is downloaded from the district administration’s website. One has to buy forms from the centre,” he said.

Jaswinder Singh, a local resident, said the centre had not lived up to the expectations of the people. “People face hostility, humiliation, harassment, delay in service, inefficiency, corruption and apathy at the hands of Suvidha Centre employees,” he alleged.

PUDA to ‘outsource’ land acquisition
Rajmeet Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 17
Punjab’s Housing and Urban Development Department is “outsourcing” land acquisition for future projects in Chandigarh’s periphery. For a job that could have been done by land acquisition collectors of the Housing Department, the government will be paying Rs 30,000 per acre as fee to private consultants to acquire land on behalf of the agency.

A senior official said like the Industries Department, that is focusing on creating land banks for the industry in cities like Bathinda, Ludhiana, Banur and Lalru, the Housing Department was contemplating acquiring land for projects in the Urban Estates.

“Outsourcing the job would mean little interface between officials and farmers. In the past, there have been complaints of officials showing undue favour to beneficiaries. There have been delays in the land acquisition process, causing losses to the government”, explained the official. Already, the department has allowed single companies to develop roads, sewerage, water supply, stormwater disposal, electricity lines and landscaping on a turnkey basis.

On the directions of the Housing Department, the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) has invited bids to outsource the job for future acquisitions. After GMADA, the outsourcing would be extended to the authorities in Ludhiana, Patiala, Jalandhar and Amritsar. The task of identifying land, preparing revenue plans, acquiring revenue record, preparing notifications under Sections 4,5, 6 and 9 and surveying structures would be allotted to consultants, of course under the watchful eyes of government officials. 

Bikers’ gang back with a bang

Abohar, July 17
Motorcycle-borne miscreants again struck on Tuesday and looted Rs 2.38 lakh by smashing the window panes of a car parked by a village sarpanch outside Punjab National Bank on the Gaushala Road here. No traffic policeman was found at the entry point of the road outside the city police station No. 2.

It appeared that the bikers were following the sarpanch of Chanankhera village, Mehman Singh. He drew `2.38 lakh from the pensioners’ account at a local branch of the Bank of India, put it in a bag and locked it in his car (PB 45-8002) before entering the PNB in the neighborhood to submit some documents. In the meantime, two motorcyclists reportedly halted, smashed window panes and decamped with the bag containing money. A police party led by ASI Harpal Singh visited the Gaushala road and recorded the statement of the victim. — OC